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Dracut board cleans up trash-pickup plan

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/09/2013 11:18:45 AM EST

DRACUT -- Moving efficiently through a packed meeting agenda, selectmen Tuesday night voted unanimously to approve three projects that are likely to impact Dracut's trash customers, seniors, and neighbors of the Four Oaks Golf Club (formerly Meadow Creek) through 2013 and beyond.

Following a public hearing, selectmen voted 5-0 to back a new single-barrel automated trash-pickup plan presented by the town's Recycling Coordinator Matt Zettek. Starting this summer, Zettek said each Dracut household will receive one, 64-gallon container compatible with trash trucks equipped with automated arms for curbside pickup on the customer's regularly appointed trash-collection day.

There will be no added fee for the first barrel, but customers who wish to have a second 64-gallon container picked up weekly will be subject to an additional fee still to be determined, Zettek told the board. Bulky items that do not fit into a trash barrel, including furniture pieces, will still be picked up free, but only one bulky item per household per week, Zettek said.

"I think this is the appropriate trash program for Dracut," said Zettek. "Compared to the drastic measures other communities are taking, we're not asking our residents to pay for every piece of trash we put out there. We're not going that route.

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Though the town is retaining its dual-stream recycling pickup system for now, requiring residents who recycle to separate their paper-waste products from cans and bottles in separate bins, Zettek said he's in researching the costs of three new recycling options for selectmen to consider later this year.

One option, which Selectman John Zimini endorsed Tuesday night, would have the town go to "single-stream" recycling, allowing residents to toss all paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, glass and other recyclable materials mixed together in an extra-large recycling barrel for automated pickup.

"I'm very interested in the single-stream recycling plan, because it's not as labor-intensive as the dual stream," said Zimini.

Following a second public hearing on a proposal by the owners of Four Oaks Golf Club to renovate the former Meadow Creek clubhouse and banquet hall, selectmen voted, 5-0, to approve the plan. Four Oaks owner Mike Kuenzler, speaking on behalf of fellow owners, his wife Cindy Kuenzler, and Peter and Tina Niarhos, pointing to an architectural design of the clubhouse, described the group's plan to expand and upgrade the clubhouse's restaurant and function hall's seating capacity by 30 percent to accommodate, up to 250 guests.

Four abutters addressed the board in favor of the Four Oaks' renovation plan, including Rich Bradley, a longtime member of the neighboring Meadow Creek Homeowners Association.

"I support this request; it's a great idea and the owners need all the support they can get," said Bradley. "Everybody I talk to, all my neighbors, are 100 percent behind it right now."

In other action, reaffirming a recent Town Meeting vote, selectmen voted 4-0 to allow the Dracut Housing Authority to expend Community Preservation Fund money to purchase land behind Richardson's Dairy along Greenmont Avenue and Bridge Street to construct senior affordable housing and office space on the parcel.

After the land's purchase, DHA member Russell Taylor said the authority will apply for federal funds needed to bring the project to fruition. Complicating the process is the presence of wetlands on the site, which drew questions from selectmen on whether the wetlands-permitting process might delay the project indefinitely.

Follow John Collins on Twitter at johncolowellsun.

The selectmen's first meeting of 2013 began on a happy and proud note for the town, as selectmen welcomed he Dracut High varsity fall cheerleading squad to Harmony Hall to be recognized and applauded for winning the state championship and the 2012 MIAA Sportsmanship award.

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